"Pacman Frogs"??

[Slide]

I was down at the local petshop today (Petco. Yay.) They've recently remodeled, and actually have things other than pet supplies and fish, much to my amazement. A few (poorly labeled) spiders, and a small assortment of reptiles and amphibians.

I don't know why, but I was compelled to purchase one of their little "Pacman" frogs.

Now, from what I can tell, these are just cute little eating machines. Mouths-and-stomachs, and they consider anything that moves to be food.

That's about all I've found..

Anyone have any experience with these guys? The one I've got is about 2", and is in a kritter keeper with a mixture of peat moss and vermiculite. Heavily moistened, with a couple crickets.

Anyway...need help! Kinda jumped in without doing my research first.. BAD me! Bad!

Thanks folks!

[Vys]

Hehehe, those little suckers seem so cool. I'd get one if you could actually leave it alone for a few days without worrying that it'd poo in the waterdish and then go sit there to drink and be poisoned.

Haven't had one, however I can at least give you this link, if you haven't visited it already:
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/Zoo/6379/

I do remember that Code Monkey wrote a quite funny story about the Pac-man he had.

[Nixy]

I saw quite a bunch of those at the Lancaster reptile show.
Cute little buggers.
It's been ages since I've kept herps but they almost made me think about getting back into them.
Curios myself as to experiences with them.

[Wade]

There's several different frogs sold under that common name, but luckily they're all in the same genus and care is pretty much the same. If you search under the latin name (Ceratophys ornata, C. cranwelli or possibly C. cornuta) or other common names like "Argentine horned frog" and "Chaco horned frog" you might have better luck searching.

They're pretty simple to keep. I use a few inches of moist sphagnum moss as a bedding and provide a large shallow water dish. That's about it, but you want to make sure to change the water several times a week. If your water supply is chlorinated, you probably want to use an aquarium dechlorinating chemical (available at the fish store) or buy bottled water. The moss should be changed as well, although you can also rinse it with clean water a few times to postphone replacing it. You should clean and disinfect the cage, but I try to avoid soap pruducts when cleaning amphibian enclosures as residual soap can be fatal to them. Temerature wise, they seem to do well in the mid 70's to mid 80's.

I feed mine primarily large cockroaches from forcepts, although I occasionally give them pinky mice. The adults are more than capable of swallowing adult mice, but some keepers have reported that the undigestable hair has caused intestinal impaction if fed as an exclusive diet. When feeding insect prey, I always dust with calcium powder. This is espesially important for growing frogs such as yours.

There's a couple of books available on them. "Frogs, Toads and Treefrogs" by Dick Bartlett is good and has a chapter on them.

Wade

[Slide]

Vys: Yeah, seen the site, but I can never look around too much, I always get the Geocities "This site has exceeded it's data transfer alotment" messages... :( Found a few other places, but nobody is terribly thorough..(ie: There is no arachnopets.com equivalent.. ;)

He is a cute little devil, though...here's a (poor quality, I must admit) photo I got of the bugger.

Can't wait 'til he gets a bit bigger.. :)

[Code Monkey]

I had really good results setting up a half wet/half dry tank with a good underground filter and powerhead setup. This saved me from having to clean up every time froggy took a massive dump.

I fed mine largely on roaches as well caught in southern Florida.

The biggest trick is avoiding the temptation to overfeed, that's how I finally killed this utterly stupid mouth on legs.

[toan]

Code,

Could you give a little more indepth discription of the setup...? sounds like a good idea and I'd like to try it. for example, how did you build the dry part and how thick was the gravel over the ugf?

toan

[Slide]

Code --

Photos, man. Post some pics, too. Illustrated diagrams, parts lists... ;)

But seriously -- it does sound like an ingenious setup, I'd like to emulate it myself...

[Code Monkey]

OK, really wasn't that complicated. Took a 10 gallon aquarium with an undergravel filter, used some rocks and a lot of large grade gravel to have one side raised up above the water level and the wet side down almost to the filter. Hooked a powerhead to the UG filter to keep the action going, and, voila, froggy heaven.

[Slide]

Just for fun, a couple more pics. Still working on my digital photography and retouching skillz.. ;)

http://phobos.optera.net/img/mr-pacman2.jpg

http://phobos.optera.net/img/mr-pacman3.jpg

[Vys]

Slide: That's a pretty froggy.
CM: Uncoscious visualisation of the froggy's retardedness ? :D

[toan]

nadkicker, i like your frog pic so much that I decided to make it my icon if it is ok w/ you.

[neveragain]

Originally posted by Code Monkey
OK, really wasn't that complicated. Took a 10 gallon aquarium with an undergravel filter, used some rocks and a lot of large grade gravel to have one side raised up above the water level and the wet side down almost to the filter. Hooked a powerhead to the UG filter to keep the action going, and, voila, froggy heaven.

that looks like too much water. these frogs arent the best swimmers and will drown very easily. just something to watch out for.

here's a pic of mine eating a pinkie

[biznacho]

At a pet store i used to get crickets from they had one of these as a "store pet." It weighed almost 7 pounds. Its main diet was pinky and fuzzy mice. Sadly it died from unknown(to me) causes. pretty frog too, all green with green blotches. I've never seen one bigger than that. She had a name but im having a hell of atime remembering it.

biznacho

[minax]

I agree, too much water, though the set-up has potential. You can only put as much water in as it goes to their venter, or slightly above. And another problem with this set-up is that once they defecate or urinate, the water is ruined, even despite the filter......their urine is so high in ammonia, it is better to change the water soon. A bowl is much better suited for said set-up, and is more convenient. I have had these frogs for over 10 years, and have had them live this long also. By the way, the 2 great frog pictures, the albino, and the brown phase, are both the C. Cranwelli, a great frog!:)